The Madcreative studio sits on the second floor of the 150 Chestnut Street office building where over fifteen other local businesses are located. Before today I had never been in a design studio, thus imagining the environment to be a bright white room, with twenty secretaries or so bustling around like a swarm of bees trying to bring the agency head his coffee. So it is in that aspect I was comforted to find the very casual yet professional workspace to be very interesting. The first three things that stood out when I walked into the studio: 1. The cleanliness of the environment was stunning. Everything had its place, Macintosh computers all facing the same way, exacto blades neatly collected in holders, and an obvious appreciation for the creator of filing cabinets. 2. The size of the studio was perfect. Not too much room for the five employees to feel as though they’re working in a jet hanger, and yet not too little forcing them to work on top of each other. 3. They had an extremely well behaved dog that casually wondered around the studio, visiting each desk as if it were the boss. Agency principal and art director Michele Aucoin has been creating design solutions with various agencies throughout southern New England since 1987. Madcreative was opened in 2000. As an advertising design studio, Madcreative teams with a network of writers, photographers and ad professionals.
After a brief tour we began to talk graphic design. Aucoin admitted she was driven into the advertising field by the first TV show she fell in love with as a child, Bewitched, where one main character was an advertising executive. Later, she brought that drive to Rhode Island College where she focused on studio painting. After some harsh criticism, Aucoin decided to become a graphic designer, and calls the decision, “the best brash decision she’s ever made.” I asked Aucoin about her goals as a business owner. “This wasn’t always my goal,” she replied. “Owning my own studio kind of became something I decided I needed to do. From here, I don’t think I want to go bigger. I have this nice small studio, five employees, and a steady flow of clients. I never wanted, or want, to become a giant design agency.” She followed that by saying, “they’re not all they’re cracked up to be.”
The conversation turned to production. I asked her about design, and how she closes the book on a particular design, both from a managing perspective and from that of the designer. “The job,” she answered, “is done when the client says it’s done. I can sit here an say it’s done when the flow is just right, or when the message is perfect, but honestly, the job will never be finished until the client is happy. We try to send as many proofs to the clients as much, and as fast as we possibly can. I’ve been in this business for a while, and I have never, ever, sent out the first proof without it being followed by a correction to the design. It’s very different from being commissioned for a painting or sculpture. These clients know exactly what they want, and anything else will not do.” Aucoin is the director of the studio, which requires her to do very little if any design, which led me to ask about her employees, the people she has surrounded herself with and whose work represents her business. “I did hire one employee because his work was almost identical to my own. I feel that it is important for the work to not only represent my business, but also myself. Two people were hired based on unbelievable skill, and two were hired not only for their skill, but because they were the exact opposite of my kind of work. And now those opposites, under my direction, can design to my standards, but in their own way, thus bringing variety to our designs, while keeping them consistent.”
In my current series I’m working on for my independent study, I’m wrestling with a lot of design clichés, which Aucoin was happy to answer questions about. “Clichés can be important, depending on the focus of the design. We handle that internal strife here by sending the client proofs that have multiple options, one of course being a blatant cliché. I’d be lying if I agreed with the final product of every work that has been green lighted by the client. My employees go through it all the time, we deal with corporate clients, and the best motivation I give them is letting them know at least they gave the client the option to go a different way, not everyone can see it like we see it.” I then asked Aucoin what reasoning would go behind turning down a job. “If it’s something I don’t believe in,” she replied. She then elaborated, “when I feel like the design will hurt more than it will help, and when I feel the message is just wrong. I worked on a brochure for Katharine Gibbs Design School, and after awhile, I told them I couldn’t. I told them it had to do with timing and staff, but it was really because nine months of design school for seventeen thousand dollars, with their resources, is not a good deal, at that point it’s a scam. That is in the case of personal feelings, in the area of business, the only reason I’d turn down a client would be because the money isn’t there. Yet, if I believed the client had a good cause, something I believed in, I would take the job, no matter the money. I’m finally in a position with my business that I feel safe to say that, and it feels good.”
On setting up a client, Aucoin says,” the first step is getting the goals of the client across, with no misunderstanding. The second is balancing the work. We work with a marketing company, a photography company, a copywriter, and of course the printers. The balance helps to just get our job done, without losing focus, and after that, get the wheels in motion.”
Madcreative stays alive with more than just electricity. Aucoin says the computers are tools, but it’s the little things that make the studio run constant. Exacto blades, a fully stocked library of graphic design magazines, and the reliable coffee machine are just a few things that are found necessary in the studio. “I require that my employees become members of AIGA,” admits Aucoin. “You have to see what’s out there in order to move forward. I’ve been a lot of studios who believe in one set way of doing things, period. And they don’t exist anymore, probably because they couldn’t keep up in the industry. It’s fast paced, and consistently changing, improving. My crew has to go to at least one AIGA meeting a month, because not only do I expect them to be the best and most socially aware team, but above all my clients expect a product that is modern or better.”
The conversation brought up client base, so I asked her what ideal would be. “Anything fun would be great,” she replied. “Our business has been so service oriented lately: insurance, health care, anti-smoking… It would be nice to do the production, both packaging and advertising design, for something just really… fun. Sadly, fun doesn’t pay the bills.”
I went back to earlier subject of giant corporate design agencies. Aucoin is resolute in her decision to push away from becoming a big agency, and for a few reasons: 1. Quality of life is very important to a workspace. “I want to be able to say good job to my team on Fridays, and take them out for beer. The limits of our business are what make my employees more motivated and create a better, less stressful work environment.” 2. The freedom is lost. “In a big agency, I could never turn down a job, the budget wouldn’t allow it.”
Finally, I asked Aucoin what I thought was my hardest question, concerning what is the worst thing about the field of graphic design, today. “The kids are living up to their own education,” she answered. “I once had to explain to a new hire what CMYK was, and it just killed me to think that after how many years learning the craft, there are people that come out looking for careers, without the really important stuff. The kids today (in college) are learning how to write a novel before they learn how to read. The appreciation and understanding for simple printing has been lost, I’ve noticed. They learn the computer stuff, but they don’t know what where to put it.”
Interviewing Michele Aucoin was extremely informative, both in the understandings of a self-made art director and the types of decisions and work ethic in the job, and also in the state of the design industry. It’s nice to see a business that has the professionalism of big business, in the level headed, and quality production of a small studio.